the hands of fate
by kitty paris
Summary: she is the one who will bring balance....she was born to fulfill an unfinished destiny....but what happens when she falls in love?


1)The calm sun arose above the seemingly still planet of Eclipse, splashing the Jedi world with a brilliant array of pinks, oranges, and yellows. The chrome buildings of the Jedi academy glimmered and glowed from the colored beams peeking over the hilltops far beyond, peppered with trees and sparkling snow. The trees of eclipse swayed gently in the morning breeze, still stiff with cold and frost from the night before, sending a hushed whisper through the forest. Life on the planet began to awaken and stirr, like spirits rising from the ground, seeping out through the cracks of night.  
  
The Force began to shift, rouse, and buzz with the busyness of the surrounding life. the pulse of their life forces began to beat louder and faster, sending their humming presence through the force like ripples of water that splashed over the Jedis' consciouseness.  
  
One by one, the young children, teengagers, and young adults rose from their beds and emerged from the chambers into the crisp, cool air of the morning. The vivid, glowing sunlight danced across their faces, thawing the sweet, cool air.  
  
The laughter of the young children soon wafts through the trees, echoing across the valley walls as they run in the cool, wet grass of the morning, chasing one another. Some older Jedi pair off holding hands, their emotions forming a wave of contaigious electricity in the air. Some cluster together in giant groups and begin to play boistrousely and giggle, the sounds of their tittering hang in the air like the clouds of smoke coming out of their mouths from the cold. Suddenly, Eclipse is no longer a sleepy planet.  
  
The adults emerge from the main central chamber and their calls are heard in the distance, barely penetrating the excited bubble of the young students' giddy laughter [and…glee?] and their attempts to round the children fail as they run to avoid being caught for the morning lessons, but the older ones reluctantly turn toward the Main Hall. Eventually, the smiling faces scatter like leaves on a fall afternoon, and retreat to their lessons in the Main Hall like the others, leaving the wind alone with no hair to toss, no noses to tickle and no one to whisper its age old secrets to.  
  
But somewhere deep within the beating heart of the forest lay hidden a young woman. Sleepy eyes awaken as Force ripples splash over her face like a gurgling stream of sparkling dewater. Sleepy chlorine eyes emerge from drooping eyelids, soon to be stung with the brilliant light of Eclips's nearby sun. she squeezes her eyelids closed until her eyes get used to the glare, her chilled skin gratefully soaking in the sunlight like a dry sponge. Shiny brown hair flows down the young woman's back, as shiny as the gleaming chrome walls of the academy buildings standing proud in the distance. She ran tough hands across her tired face, as tough as the heart that, miraculousely, was beating inside her sore and pained chest. she sat up as the aching, tired ropes of her swigning bed creaked and moaned. She swung her bare, dirty and calloused feet over the edge and slid her body off, shivering as the cold bit through her clothes. The frosty dirt sank between her toes as she trudged through the forest toward the academy gates. She bent over and put on her black boots, and her thin thermal coat, and then she ran toward home, through the slowly warming and fragrant spring air, and slowly drifting blossoms falling from the trees above.  
  
  
  
2) Darkness. The smell of sweat and blood hangs in the air, and the feeling of dread and danger creeps up her paralyzed spine. Darkness, utter darkness, emptiness. A cold wind suddenly blows past, a foggy mist rises up out of the nothingness.  
  
FLASH!  
  
Time stops and yet travels at the same time. armor. Black armor.  
  
FLASH! With the glow and hiss of a cutting red saber.  
  
Back into nothingness. A firey but distant knife that she can't see slices into her mind. falling! Falling…  
  
Karoly awoke with a cry. A cold sweat broke on her brow and dripped off her face, trickling down her back, legs, neck, and other places. her quivering hands were freezing and she clasped them together tightly. She was panting heavily, taking in the freezing air and blowing it out like a cloud of smoke illuminated by the moonight. Her eyes darted around the room, her heart pounded so hard she felt dizzy and choked. She commanded the glow panels on, and the light flooded her quarters. She was cold, so cold….  
  
Cold?  
  
This wasn't right. She felt trapped in a dream world, her head pounded with terrifying images, and as if someone had laid a saber into her brain. The humm of the glow panels was almost too overwhelming. She squinted in the suddenly harsh light, and clutched her head. once again she cried out, but in pain, not fear. Immidiately, her astromech droid squealed to life and wheeled its merry way to her side. it bleeped and belted a question.  
  
"water" she commanded, her dry throat croaked. Her lips were cracked. Forming words was painful. "I need water. Now!" he bleeped and chirped as he turned, opened the airlock, and wheeled down the corridor. She watched as her breath turned to frozen vapor before her eyes. And yet….the air didn't feel cold. Not at all. Her skin somehow felt warm air on the surface. The air in her throat wasn't frozen like her breath. She gasped, warm breath caught in her throat then. she was cold, not the room. From the inside out. Her breath was warming and melting in the air, not cooling and freezing. Her quivering hands were not only from fear, but from chills.  
  
What was going on???  
  
The trickling sweat on her back was slowing and…freezing! She leapt out of her bed and raced down the corridor toward the refreshers. The normally chilly marble felt rather warm on her toes. She tore off her clothes; already they were sticking to her skin, and glanced in the mirror. Her lips were blue. She turned on the water as hot as it would be, and jumped in. it scorched her skin, and for the third time she cried out in excruciating pain. She let the steaming, scalding liquid flow over her entire body; she even drank it. it took only a minute to melt her frozen sweat, until her skin turned from white and blue to a healthy pink. She began to feel warmer, as if a sheet of ice was simply melting off her body. And once she was confident she would not re-freeze, she jumped out of the shower and into the dryer. Almost instantly was the water vaped and her hair and body dry. She threw her clothes on again in a torrent, and flew down the corridor like a hurricane back to her chambers.  
  
Something was not right. She felt it in her bones, her very being. Her becoming frozen was not the only clue. There was turnoil in the force, not something obvious and shocking, but something subtle, slowly stirring, breaking…as if the very fabric of space-time was being bent a way it should not be bent. No, something was not right. Perhaps her father felt it?  
  
She ripped apart her chambers, searching, searching….for what she did not know. the minute something was physically out of place, she would consider going to her father. She found all four lightsabers, and all of her dozens of blasters were accounted for. Vibroknives, comm-links…everything was where she had so carefully placed them. her clothes were always a nightmare of a mess, but it looked the same. She owned not many other possessions, so the search was quick and easy. Nothing seemed out of place. but soemthing, somewhere was very wrong.  
  
What?  
  
she could not put the feeling into words. Something, something, it was like looking for a thing you hadn't used for an eternity, but forgetting what it looked like. How could you describe it, much less find it? it was somewhere unknown, elusive.  
  
And what had the sith armor and knife meant in her dream? She grew very troubled and labored for hours over her thoughts, searching and researching her chmabers. Something was missing…  
  
Eventually, she gave up her search as weariness took over her body, and she fell into a deep and fitful sleep. She had no more disturbing dreams, and awoke the next morning thinking the episode was just a nightmare, but her blasters were scattered on her floor where she had left them the night before, meaning It was not. She sighed heavily and decided to forget the whole incident. She no longer felt the holes of missing, anyway.  
  
  
  
3) the warm wind whistled through the trees of eclipse, tossing karoly's dark brown hair about her sturdy shoulders, and across her face, deeply lined with concern. She was deep in thought, mulling over her vision, again and again. what had the knife and emptiness meant? Curiosity more than worry compelled her to find the answer. Every time she felt she had come to a revalation, she either lost her train of thought or realised the idea was illogical. She burrowed deep inside, deep, deep inside the furrows of her mind. something inside her was trying to cry out, to make itself known. Deep, deep inside… she felt it had the answer. She reached out as far as she could, but the efforts were futile. It was like searching for a yslamari in the dark. You know its there, but you have to wait till IT finds YOU.  
  
She averted her thoughts and gaze to here and now (where it belonged) and looked upoun the lively game or electroball in progress a few dozen yards away. the laughter form the participants and their mates wafted through the breeze, and karoly longed to be with them. she looked upoun her peers: Nejja, rather quiet, delicate flower of a girl who had been here since Luke had found her on New Alderaan when she was eight; Yenni, a boistrous, lively boy of about 14, but extremely short for his age. He has been recruited last year, and since then the academy seemed surprisingly more lively wiht his constant joking and tricks, but he knew when to be serious. Then her eyes fell on one of the older students: Ian Tadj'our, eighteen, being a year her elder. He was shorter than most his peers, but not shorter than karoly. He had broad shoulders and sturdy hands, and a very set, distinct jawline that gave him a very authoritive and adamant manner. He had been here ever since she could remember; which was unusual since her father usually only took students as young as 7 or 8. Something about his parents and a debt her father had to pay. She supposed it was one more self-reteous thing her father did to be the generous, caring jedi master he made everyone think he was.  
  
She sighed and got up then. she was getting hungry and decided it was time to go in and eat. But as karoly approached the large chrome building, a feeling of dread glowered in her stomach like a raincloud at the thought of what she might find inside where her family dwelled.  
  
raised voices were making their way down the hall, echoing and bouncing off the walls, much like they did inside her head. her mother and father were fighting. Again. what about this time? as she drew closer to the door of the living chamber, she slowed and stopped, drawing her presence into herself, listening.  
  
"it's not MY fault…you wanted me to…academy!" it was her father's voice, but his voice was muffled and it was hard making words out of the rise and fall of voices through the door.  
  
"I don't know why…never have time…family!" it was her mother. Obviousely they were fighting over this stupid academy. Again. her mother was sick of it and wanted to go back to coruscant. She said luke had no time for his children. She coudnlt help but agree. She leaned forward and strained her ears.  
  
"what do you…to do?! I am ebing the best parent…be."  
  
"well IM not…who neglected to…own…for a year! Who found her, luke? Huh? Me!" she shouted. Now they were talking about her again. she sighed. Why did they always fight? Her chest grew tight and her stomach was tied in knots. She opened the door, but her parents arguing didn't cease. They glanced at her as she walked in and continued in lower voices. She pushed past them to the thermo to grab some fruit. Then she could run away agauin, into the woods, far away from the voices, from the noise, the pain. she searched quickly for something small, her emotions drowned out amid the yells and her parents' hurracain of emotions slamming into her mind.  
  
who could make it stop? Why couldn't they stop acting like children and simply work out their differences? And why did they never fight about ben? Anger welled up inside her, constricting her throat. stop! She wanted to scream.  
  
with a with a small cake and a piece of fruit, karoly pushed past her parents and ran away without a glance.  
  
The hallways and youth were a blur around her, noises dripped like rippled water, the thudding of her heavy boots echoing was as loud and fast as her heart. With threatening tears in the corners of her eyes, karoly clutched to her food and tore through the academy, toward the gates. Toward freedom from her family, from the cage that imprisoned her spirit. Somehow, the world outside the academy seemed to shrink to a size her battered heart could handle.  
  
The gates were gleaming in front of her. just a few seconds away. in her frantic rush to pull it open, karoly threw her cake and fruit, but she didn't care. She was out of the gates and running into the trees before she could think of reclaiming them, or shutting the gate. All she could think about was simply getting away.  
  
Ian felt a flustered, angry, confused presence approaching him as he sat down on the soft green grass. Before he had time to assume it was karoly, a black blur flew past. He could feel her fighting tears, feel her emotional panic and turmoil. He gazed her direction for another moment, then got up and began to follow her at a slow run. He wondered what could have upset the callouse girl, and curiosity compelled himm to find the answer. No one questioned him or called after him. he kept running after karoly, now tearing throguh the gates in a torrent of despair.  
  
Luke skywalker gazed out the small transparisteel window down onto his adolescant students, most of whom were playing electroball. His eyes feel one each one individually, recalling how he found them, their personal struggles, strengths and weaknesses, likes and disklikes. He was so fond of his students, and he loved it when they were like this: happy, free, like summer treeblossoms astray on the wind.  
  
Then he saw karoly running away, shoving past people, knocking over children, looking frantic and panicked. His heart sunjk even lower than it was already. He had known a few nights ago she had a vision and it had been distractign her more than usual, forming a rift between herself and peers even larger than it already was. But she wasn't running because of the vision.  
  
She was runniing because she had seen him and mara fight. He grew frusterated then, with himself, with his daughter, with this academy. Why coulnt they be a happy family? Then remorse settled in; he knew why: It was his fault karoly had been taken away, it was his fault Storm Lightkiller had kept her so long, beating and practically starving her. and for what?! His life. and he had not been willing to trade himself to spare his child. He had failed.  
  
Instead he stayed at the academy, usuing it as an excuse to stay, until mara left to find her. this silly acaddemy was the reason for all the doubt and hatred and sadness. The reason why luke had allowed himself to fail. The reason why karoly hated him, why mara refused to speak with him. 


End file.
